Art History 291id - Colloquium: Topics in Art History-Imperial Design

Everyday objects have often been marginalized in art history. Until fairly recently, when these objects were under consideration—especially in histories of Europe and the United States in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries—they were framed as frivolous indicators of bourgeois taste. This course posits that histories of design, decorative arts, and material culture in the west reveal critical histories of imperialism, spotlighting topics such as migration, violation, appropriation, and indigenous agency. Far from benign indicators of status, then, this course asks students to position objects from the history of design, decorative arts, and material culture as critical historical texts. (E)

[CE] ARH 291 Limit